The former home of Peace House on E. Franklin Avenue is now gone, demolished to make room for the last phase of the Franklin-Portland Gateway project.
Although the demolition long has been anticipated, it removes a building where homeless people mingled with volunteers for prayer, meditation, talk and sometimes meals since 1985. It also eliminated a mosaic mural on the building's side that the city opted not to require be preserved or documented.
Peace House moved on July 1 to new smaller quarters one and one-half blocks away at 1816 Portland Ave.
That leaves a clear site for the fourth phase of the gateway effort, which over more than 10 years has added more than 300 affordable housing units, plus retail and office space. The latest development, on the northwest corner of the intersection, will add 90 more units and rehab another 30 in the adjacent Pine Cliff Apartment building.
The previous three developments by the partnership of Aeon, a nonprofit housing developer, and HOPE Community, which has been ministering to low-income residents of the area since 1977, fill the intersection's remaining corners.
